Burlington School District RE-6J extension of its 3.515-mill levy for heating, cooling and building upkeep

Burlington School District RE-6J's 3.515-mill property tax is scheduled to terminate in the 2026 tax collection year. Its voters approved the tax on November 5, 2019, and Ballot Issue 5D would keep it at the same rate until it sunsets at the end of tax collection year 2035.

The question states that it creates no new tax and raises no current tax rate, and that district taxes would be "INCREASED BY $0 ANNUALLY." The $0 measures the increase over the taxes the district collects now, not the tax that continues: property owners in the district would keep paying the 3.515 mills every year through 2035. A no vote lets the levy end on the schedule it already has, and other levies and changes in assessed value would still move each property's total tax bill.

The district lies in Kit Carson and Yuma counties, according to the state Division of Property Taxation. Kit Carson County's certified sample ballot lists the question as Ballot Issue 5D.

The levy is charged on a property's taxable assessed value after exemptions and adjustments, which differs from its market value. At 3.515 mills, the calculator estimates $351.50 a year for each $100,000 of taxable assessed value and works the figure for any value. The rate is fixed by the question, but the dollars collected rise or fall with assessed value.

The 3.515 mills are one part of the district's 13.03-mill override levy; the rest of that override is not on this ballot, and the question states that this levy is independent of any other tax levy. The state's 2025 tax-district record shows the district levying the 13.03-mill override beside a 27-mill general fund levy and a 0.2-mill abatement levy, a total of 40.23 mills. The district's adopted 2026-27 budget assumes the same override and general fund levies on a net assessed valuation of $131,280,237, the value the state recorded for 2025.

The ballot restricts the revenue to two purposes: costs associated with the district's heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, and costs of repair and upkeep "TO EXTEND THE USEFUL LIFE OF FACILITIES." The money would continue to go into and be spent from the general fund, on top of the district's other property taxes for that fund. The district's adopted budget reports its general fund property taxes as a single line, $5,173,868 for 2026-27, without splitting out this levy's share.

The district's adopted 2026-27 budget sets general fund spending at $12,041,157, including $1,374,253 for maintenance and operations. It projects a general fund balance of $10,080,950 at the start of 2026-27 and the same balance at year end. The budget's most recent completed year, 2024-25, ended with $9,812,497, and the balance stood at $5,003,973 at the start of 2022-23.

The Burlington Board of Education adopted the ballot resolution at a special meeting on September 4, 2026, by a vote of 5 to 0, with two directors absent. The resolution states that the district "is in need of additional funds" for the purposes on the ballot, that "there are not sufficient funds in the treasury of the District," and that the board does not expect existing revenue sources to cover them.

The Secretary of State's 2026 Election Calendar sets October 2, 2026 as the deadline to mail the district's TABOR notice, at least 30 days before the November 3 election. The district resolution's October 5 date is inconsistent with that calendar.

If voters approve, the district could keep collecting and spending the 3.515-mill revenue through 2035 without further voter approval and without regard to the revenue limit in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, Article X, Section 20 of the state constitution, or any other law.